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Barack Obama has been re-elected as the President of USA beating Mitt Romney. In his victory speech he said, “No matter what, you can make it in America” …and that’s very true!

Although the result is not really a surprise to me or to anyone else I think, what has been really surprising is the reaction of Indians towards the US election. For one, they seemed to take more interest in the US elections than Indian elections. They were exhorting their fellow US citizens to go out and vote and these are people who themselves would never have voted in their own countries. They all heaved a sigh of relief when Obama was elected. There could be a couple of reasons for this:

1. These people identify themselves as future US citizens and therefore are invested in US elections

2. They feel Obama is more like them and they identify with him – he rose from nowhere, is not white, is not black either!

3. They want to participate in important, global issues

4. But the biggest reason, I think, is that they feel a void in the leadership space in Indian politics and to fulfill it, look at the next best option – the world superpower.

What I feel? I don’t care who the American president is. I only feel sorry about the Indian Politics. I feel sorry that Indians have to look to USA to feel the thrill of politics. I feel bad that my generation does not show any interest in the politics of its own country but does so in that of the US. Just sucks.

But Yay!! for Obama…it will probably be just more of the same. Often, people are more relieved by the status quo than by change. So, more people are at peace than not.

Of late, I had almost lost touch with the news, headlines or political shenanigans of the Indian Political Scene. One of the many reasons was over-occupation with work and no cable TV. As much as I love to curl up with a newspaper and tea in the morning, I am hardly able to rouse myself up and get that time. So, in essence, little web snippets on TOI or The Hindu form my source of information.

From these founts of inspiration, I was informed about the magnitude of 2G Scam caused by A Raja. Nearly $ 45 billion was robbed from the coffers of the nation by selling the spectrum at dirt cheap prices to fill the pockets of A Raja and allies. The mere headlines made blood rush to my head so violently that I felt dizzy. Since then, I have not had the courage to go and read in depth about it.

How can they? Do they not have a bit of shame? Where are the morals? Where have the ethics gone?

I find it extremely hard to contemplate that what goes on in the minds of such people – people who sit in positions of power and loot the nation. But over and above that, what terrifies me most, is that this problem, in this particular country, remains unsolvable. The culprits are pardoned and misdeeds hushed up so spectacularly that it is spectacular in itself.

I wonder, how did we ever come to this? How did we arrive at a situation where politics = cronyism, gundaraaj and absolute bullheads on top? What went so wrong? And what can be made right?

It is scary because these are the people who can decide how far and how well I develop as a citizen of this country. I do not want to suffer (as millions do everyday) because someone is characterless and immoral and filled with cow dung in the head. It plainly confounds me.

I might have as well put this post in the wonderful woman series, but I will not because I do not think she is all that wonderful. But she is one lucky lady. And I thank heavens for her luck. I feel good that she is so lucky so as to be the First Woman President of India. The lady is the typical Indian grandmother kind of lady and I somehow find it very interesting to see her travel all over the world, meeting all sorts of people and flying in Sukhois :). I like the whole idea. I almost relish it. If only she had been more substantial, I would be elated.

Now, I would like to tell you why I am writing a post suddenly about Pratibha Patil. Apart from the fact that it is her 75th birthday today, I saw a pic of her celebrating it with some special kids and it evoked some kind of appreciation for her from me. (Pic is taken from The Hindu)

The love and the tenderness with which she is feeding the kid can be seen and felt from the honest smile on her face. She seems really glad. And when I saw this pic I thought of other women in Politics, women from US and UK and other developed and white nations, and I was unable to imagine such honest care being put forward by any of those. They seen kind of artificial to me. I dont know. I just felt that this was a good pic and so I not only put it here but wrote a post about it.

Whew ! By the way, wish you a very very happy Birthday Miss President!!!

All of a sudden it is like the country has become death’s playground and terrorists are their messengers. I am speaking of the recent bomb blasts, the communal violence in the Orissa, in UP and again in Mumbai. It is disgusting and makes me want to throw up. People have thrown their sanity to dogs and some extreme sadists are feeding on their foolishness to serve their political agendas. All those people who are in anyway involved in the perpetrating of terrorist and communal violence may all burn while they are alive. These are crimes of such heinous order that it can never be forgiven. Killing innocent and unsuspecting people for nothing at all but their inanity. DUMB. Bloody dumb.

And now that stampede at the temple. Fucking animals. What is the rush? Why can’t you wait for your chance. There is too much pushing out of the way here. Imagine, 200 people dead fro nothing but the extreme foolishness of some 10 people who could not control their bloody selves. I just want to scream some sense into these kinds of nonsensical people who are getting nothing but deaths credited to their names. I am sure that when they realize this they will hate it too and stop it but where does one buy and distribute sense? How does one make it happen? How does one stop the arsonists who fire the wrong sentiments of people and make them commit crimes? How does one stop terrorism and communalism in India??? JUST HOW?? Someone please tell me.

The government has never handles it well and never will because handling it well would mean political repercussions and the swines that we have elected to sit in the offices do not have the guts and the spine to display or even think of leadership. Media can play a huge role but in India, good journalism is almost extinct what we have is sensationalist and celebrity journalism. The latter serves nonsense and the former feeds into the flame of hate.

Its disgusting, disparaging and I am disgruntled. It is like a whole bunch of country has become mad and the only instrument they have to express themselves is violence. Only some days ago a CEO of a company was beaten to death by the laid of employees. Fucking assholes. Fucking Mobocracy. That is where we are headed and what they don’t understand is that this system will not serve any purpose other than killing themselves.

Oh, How I long for a strong leader to be at the helm of affairs and not some spineless septu-sexagenarians who can only offer sympathies and visit the sites when the crime has already been done. I need someone who will be there to take action and not fear about political gimmicks.

And the unfortunate thing is that I do not see that happening in the coming 10 years. I am right now hugely disappointed. It is time for a radical change. It is a calling which we should all hear to at once. Otherwise a developed India will be a dream as distant as the sun.

Our political system and the political environment in in knee deep..naah..neck deep shit right now. Yes, it is. And for that I blame myself and I blame all of you adult, sensible, eligible voters who choose to not go and vote in the elections when they do happen and later crib all about the stinking mess that the system is. There are extremely passionate people who say that if you are tired and sick go join the government, contest elections and do things. I would no say that because it is not everybody’s interest to be deeply involved in politics but it is in and is everybody’s interest to have a well meaning and well functioning government. How do we expect to have one when we don’t even care? Do you even know who is standing in the elections in the constituency to which you belong? No. I bet you don’t and you would not care. You would not care about petty things like those but you would care when some minister sitting in an office will behave like a perfect imbecile. He will do so because he is an imbecile and we are the bigger ones who let him be there in the first place. At a place which could make so much difference if the right person was seated there. And after that we crib and we cry that such are our politicians.

Someone has said truly that in a democracy, we get the government we deserve. And we, the new intellectuals, oh like so much, to harp about how democracy is so good a process but forget the fundamental that it is for the people, BY THE PEOPLE. And that we are the people. We can not just sit back and expect to eat ripe fruits without sowing the seed. It makes me sick, the hypocrisy of the educated and well to do classes. It seems like they consider politics and elections for the lesser people and that is exactly what they get: The lesser politicians. When you don’t care, you are duped.

Participation is necessary to maintain a democracy. Questioning is necessary. It is necessary that we test the system time and again and contribute to make it a success . And all of this is not a Herculean task. It is extremely simple. Just one simple way to do it all: TO VOTE WITH WISDOM. That is all. I urge and request all the eligible voters to get registered this time and choose people who are if not perfect, at least better of the two. For those of who say that there are no good candidates to vote for, there is provision whereby you can reject all of the candidates and if this happens to be the majority then fresh nominations will be called. In the democracy, the power is in our hands. Let us not waste it and then sit whining and cribbing. Instead, let us make use of it for our own personal gains. Let us VOTE.

I hope that next upcoming Lok Sabha elections will be a success in real terms. Let us make it a possibility. Let us strive for a better Indian Political Process which is manned and headed by intelligent, rational and forward looking people and not some country selling, corrupt criminals. We have the instrument, we have the power.

One day I was thinking about any prominent politician or for that matter a leader of any kind in the present situation in our country and astonishingly so, noone came to my mind. Noone. Manmohan Singh appeared a little too meek. Well, you can’t be really that silent when you are leading a country of 1 billion people and more. Sonia Gandhi I did not consider seriously. She is more of a forced leader than natural. L K Advani is a leader who is utilizing his position of being a veteran. Other than that, he has no substance and is too desperate right now and pushes all the wrong agendas from my point of view. Mayawati is pure vociferousness. Rahul gandhi, I am not sure but yet again he does not seem to be a pillar of strength types, too delicate, sophisticated and soft spoken. Narendra Modi is a villain and a goonda. Prakash Karat is stubborn. Our President is hardly even recognizable. I have never heard her speak or make any statements of consequence.

On the whole, there are like one or two leaders who have qualities to reckon. I believe Somnath Chatterjee is one of them. He has integrity at least. The common thing in all of these are that they are not great orators. None of them. They cannot move a crowd which is at least partly sensible by their words, let alone ideas. I have come to realize that oratorical skills are very important in the making of a good leader. The one who comes closest is Manmohan Singh because when he does speak, he makes sense and provides conviction.

I may be missing and overlooking some totally phenomenal leaders who I don’t know about. If you do , please let me know. I will be glad to know. And just as a sidenote, I think that Sachin Pilot’s political career is one worth following. He is one of the more worthy leaders of our generation.

I generally dislike the dip which Times of India has shown in the quality of its journalism in going from an informative newspaper to the chatpata style. So much so that me and my friends and many more people call it The Trash of India jokingly. BUT and all with capital letters, I am all praise for the “Lead India” initiative which they took and carried with full gusto and aplomb. It was a very thoughtful and very encouraging gesture for the young, educated wannabes of the politics. They might have failed into converting it into a real leadership opportunity but they have very successfully provoked thoughts in the minds of interested men and women and given those people the nudge who were sitting on the borders. All the candidates were good. Not all were equal but each was passionate about what they wanted to do to contribute to India’s development while being successful professionals at the same time. Judges were also good. About Javed Akhtar and Kiran Bedi we all know but I found that the Sr. Editor of TOI Rajiv Singh was also an intelligent and sensible person.

I think that the verdict which was final was correct. Mr. R.K. Mishra has all that it takes to be a politician but the best part is that he is already active and going in the right direction till now at least. I also appreciate the efforts of Sanjiv Kaura and Ranjeet Gadgil who have been very active in social work in these past years.

I felt it was a funny thing that happened when the political leaders from three leading parties were called and asked if they would give these candidates the ticket from their party. And guess what, these people who had been advocating that there should be leadership from youth and all the blah blah unashamedly and I thought even rather un-diplomatically refused straight away saying that they were not going to give someone a ticket unless they benefited their political party and conformed to their ideology and that they would only be considered after ensuring the selfishness of the party. So much for the bullshitting earlier that youth should join, educated professionals should join. When someone does come forward in national interest, it is the bloody party whose interest has to be served before anything else. Case in point of how politics has been reduced to just a game of power and nothing else. The thing that made me laugh was that how hypocritical these leaders were and not a bit unabashed at changing their propositions in one instant. I guess being a politician that is the first thing you learn. They claim that its not easy and that they have worked since their 20’s to achieve this level they are at ( whatever the “level” is ). Well, I think that a candidate’s merit can equal another’s years of labor. Oh yeah, and the three leaders were Amar Singh from BSP, Abhishek Singhvi from Congress and Arun Jaitley from BJP. Also, I felt that the BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad was a great orator and talked to the point with great fluency and intellect.

Lead India as an effort is praiseworthy. It is a fresh change amidst all the nonsense west-copied reality shows. I don’t know if it is copied format or not ( I hope it is not ) but it was a very welcome sign between all the dancing and singing hullabaloo. I know its late and it has ended almost 2-3 months ago but I saw it only recently and could not help but post this.